Private firms working for the public good during the coronavirus outbreak

This fight against coronavirus is the great national effort of our era with countless private firms mobilising and shifting resources to play their own unique part

SPONSORED BY THE CABINET OFFICE

19 May, 2020 12:51

People working for a wide range of private companies have been standing side-by-side with public sector staff on the front line during the coronavirus outbreak. Staff at private sector firms have been doing their bit to help out communities across the country during the crisis. This includes employees from many of the large outsourcing firms that the government works with, who have both shifted their resources to work on other projects and made sure vital services have continued. Here are just some of the many examples from across the country.

Trying to make a difference

CASE STUDY 1: VENTILATOR

At the beginning of the Covid 19 crisis, the UK's hospitals had 8,000 ventilators. They now have 11,500 - of which more than 1,000 are from the Prime Minister’s Ventilator Challenge. Babcock International is one of those companies which has stepped up to the challenge. The company based in London has offices, specialist training facilities, dockyards, equipment testing centres and research and development facilities here in Northern Ireland and across England, Scotland and Wales.

Chris Spicer is project manager for the ventilator challenge at the company, explaining: “On Monday March 16 there was an email asking if there was any way Babcock could provide support. By the Friday we had a working prototype. The weekend was pretty busy preparing for a presentation to the government on the Monday to propose what our offering would be, how it would meet the requirement specifications, our plan for building it, the time frame and also the volumes we could achieve.

“People worked round-the-clock to get it sorted and have continued to. We’ve used innovative, bespoke ways of moving forward. Some of the machine companies we use for submarine parts now make plastic valves for the ventilators. We all want to help in any small way we can. We all have relatives in vulnerable groups and that’s a driver – thinking if that was your father or your granny in that scenario how could you make that little bit of difference.

CHALLENGING TIMES: Chris Spicer is project manager for Babcock International

Ensuring the children of key workers are well fed

CASE STUDY 2: FOOD

Feeding the children of key workers who have still been attending school during the coronavirus crisis has been a significant challenge. One of the firms that has been helping ensure children are well fed is ISS education, who work with more than 600 education establishments across the country.

They have been providing food hampers packed with all the ingredients families need to cook meals at home for their children Linda Cregan is the food services director for ISS education. She explains that around 200 of the schools it serves have stayed open to feed vulnerable and key worker children.

“We wanted to make sure we were doing everything possible and making it as easy as possible for schools to find solutions locally to what they needed,” said Ms Cregan.

“We have had a mixed bag offering packed lunches, collections, and hot meals.”

One of the establishments they have worked with is the Waterton Academy Trust, which is based in Wakefield. Linda adds: “The trust wanted to be able to provide families with the ingredients that they could then cook the meals at home with for their children.

FAST WORK: Steve Francis

Stepping up to support Nightingale North West

CASE STUDY 3: HOSPITAL

Global construction and support services company Interserve is among the many that has stepped up to help out in the current crisis. The company was already providing services ranging from security through to cleaning, catering, maintenance and portering duties to 11 NHS hospitals, six healthcare facilities, the London Ambulance Service and the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service. Within 11 days of taking an initial call, they had everything ready - from cleaning to catering - for Nightingale North West. Steve Francis works for Interserve as part of the facilities management team at the hospital. He said: “Teams had to move quickly on the Nightingale contract. The company had a call from the NHS and 11 days later we were live.”

Virtual visiting brings comfort to families

CASE STUDY 4: LIFELINES

A unique partnership of medical experts, academics, companies and charities has led to the creation of a way for families to see loved ones in intensive care without actually visiting them. The team have shared expertise and resources to help patients and families stay connected through Life Lines, a project which provides a secure virtual-visiting solution for families whose loved ones are being treated in intensive care units during the coronavirus pandemic.

It means that even though they can’t visit, family members can still be at the bedside via a tablet and secure app.

The Life Lines project was set up by critical care consultant Dr Joel Meyer, professor of critical care nursing Professor Louise Rose and Michel Paquet, who developed the aTouchAway app used in the project and is the chief executive officer of Aetonix. Partners include King’s College London, King’s Health Partners, Aetonix, Bray Leino, Google and BT. Initial funding of £1m was provided by the True Colours Trust and the Gatsby Charitable Foundation.

Companies doing their bit

Interserve have used 40 vehicles and 100 people from their probation team to deliver food to the elderly and vulnerable.

BAE Systems helped to secure more PPE equipment for NHS staff by using their industrial-scale 3D printers to make tens of thousands of face shields.

Engie are distributing shielding and welfare boxes to vulnerable people on behalf of local councils.

ISS have delivered recipe books and food hampers to thousands of children who are eligible for free school meals.

BT have worked with Samsung, Google, MobileIron and TouchAway to provide video services for people in intensive care units, allowing them to communicate with their families.